(Atlantic, Iowa) – UPDATE 8/8/23 – **THE REQUEST HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN, therefore the meeting is cancelled ** The City of Atlantic’s Community Protection Committee will meet 3:30-p.m. Wednesday, August 9th, in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall. There is one item on their agenda: Reviewing and making a recommendation to the City Council, with regard to a request for target shooting permission at 1401 Sunnyside Lane, in Atlantic (The Iowa DNR Field Office 4 building). The request is being made by Brent Martens, who works for the DNR.

He requests consent to target practice with his box, during his lunch breaks at work. In a letter to Mayor Grace Garrett, Martens he had “Looked west of the building for some time now , and just feel it would be a nice area to get a couple of shots in,” while he’s on break. Martens notes that, to the south of the DNR’s building, there is a hay field, and beyond that, some communication dishes. “Further beyond that,” he says, “Is a building. The building which is the only inhabitable structure is one-quarter [of a] mile,” from where he would be shooting. Martens says if approved, he would use a foam target out to 40-yards.

The City of Atlantic, he acknowledged, has an Ordinance (41.11) making it unlawful for a person to “Throw stones, bricks or missiles of any kind, or to shoot arrows….or other dangerous instruments…” without written consent of the Council.